Animal lovers transitioning from middle grade to YA will find a lot to enjoy here.
Kid detectives find themselves mixed up in 10 interconnected mysteries.
Native Briton Kat Wolfe and her American friend, Harper Lamb, daughters of a veterinarian and a paleontologist, respectively, feel fully equipped to take on a mystery or two—after all, they’ve done it before (Kat Wolfe Investigates, 2018). But this new one proves to be a little more complicated—they count at least 10, many pertaining to endangered and extinct (and maybe fantastical) creatures, from bluefin tunas to dinosaurs. Is the new fossil unearthed in their Dorset, England, town a dinosaur or a dragon? Why are two Hollywood stars interested in it, and why won’t they pay Kat for all the petsitting she’s doing for their Pomeranian? What might Kat’s grandfather, Britain’s minister of defense, have to do with it all? Amazingly, all 10 mysteries do intertwine, though it takes some extraordinary strokes of luck along with Kat’s commendable sleuthing skills. St John makes some missteps with the American characters, using a lot more British language patterns and words than seems plausible for people who didn’t grow up there. Adult characters are silly enough that the kids get to be the heroes of the story, but they’re not so buffoonish that they’ll insult the intelligence of the characters or readers. Kat presents white while brown-skinned Harper is of Cuban descent, and their community reflects a vigorously diverse England.
Animal lovers transitioning from middle grade to YA will find a lot to enjoy here. (Mystery. 10-14)Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-374-30961-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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